Swedish-American Cross-Currents

S W E D I S H - A M E R I C A N CROSS-CURRENTS
F R A N K L I N D . SCOTT
I
The commonplace that Sweden is the most Americanized
country i n Europe views only one side of the coin. Our frequent
concentration on the influence of Swedish immigrants in
America views only the other side of the coin. Actually a mutual
and multi-faceted interaction is the force that has shaped both
societies. And the process is much older than we ordinarily
consider.
The first impact of America on Sweden was the knowledge of
America's existence. A N ew World became a reality. People who
had thought in parish-bound terms and believed i n the flatness of
the earth were awakened to a vastly expanded universe. For
Columbus and his successors opened up a world even more
extensive than the Vikings had known, and much more inviting.
Minds had to adjust to new concepts. But not until after Gustavus
Adolphus was direct contact made from Sweden to the continent
across the ocean.
The seventeenth-century Swedo-Finnish colony on the
Delaware had only a brief existence, but the settlers and their
descendants remained. They brought the log cabin that became
the housing and the symbol of the frontier, and they established
relationships that were never completely broken. Pastors
continued to be sent out from Sweden. Per Kalm, in the middle
of the eighteenth century, took back home specimens of North
American flora that enlarged the scope of Linné's scientific
analyses. Benjamin Franklin was idealized in Sweden, as in
France, as the most enlightened philosopher and educator, and
acclaimed as the discoverer of the nature of electricity; it was he
who, in 1783, signed with the Swedish ambassador in Paris the
first treaty between the new United States and a neutral country.
During the American Revolution a cohort of aristocratic young
Swedish officers came with the French forces and learned
warfare first hand; none of them was sufficiently interested in
r e p u b l i c a n i sm to remain i n the U n i t e d States, but their
289
experience may have affected a critical attitude toward the
monarchy of Gustav III. Swedish poets sang praises to George
Washington, "freedom's hero," and "kingly president."1
Individual Swedes were attracted to the United States as
immigrants, such as Adolf U l r i c Wertmüller, the painter of
Washington and other notables, or as visitors, l i k e Axel
Klinkowström, who studied steamboats and became fascinated
with American society and politics. Later came Fredrika Bremer,
and Jenny L i n d , the "Swedish Nightingale," and Per Siljeström
to study the American educational system. But Swedes were
slow to emigrate i n large numbers until the 1840s. Then came a
group to New Sweden, Iowa, and soon thereafter the famous
colony of Eric-Jansonists to Bishop H i l l , Illinois. It was the call
of religious freedom that drew these followers of the "Wheat
Flour Messiah." The emigration of dissenters roused Sweden to
abolish restrictive laws against them, and soon it was economic
pressure rather than religious that inspired further emigration.
By the late 1860s crop failures and famine induced the migration
to, among other places, northeastern Maine. A veritable
population explosion pushed thousands from their Swedish
cradles to seek a new life across the Atlantic; Swedish industrial
development was too slow to absorb the excess of people.
Another factor became important, too, that had little to do with
either religious oppression or economic need. Mens' minds were
expanding to a full realization that there existed something
beyond the bounds of the Swedish lakes and woods. Some
poignant passages from the quinquennial report of Sweden's
provincial governors, in 1870, attest to the changes that were
taking place:
The older generation among us can recall a time when our
own land was the whole of our world, when even our
neighbors seemed farther away than other continents do
now. . . .
Through educational institutions at all levels, through
popular writings and newspaper articles, information spread
to all inhabitants. Special interests . . . relatives, friends,
countrymen who had emigrated excercised their influence.
Emigration is a phase of development in civilization in
which every people is affected in the degree of its education
and individual freedom.2
290
Some thought of emigration as a welcome safety valve, saving
the country from social disruption. But as the outflowing tide
grew stronger economists and politicians and patriots became
more and more concerned. One economist ruefully reckoned
that every emigrant had cost Swedish society 5,000 k r o n o r to
raise and educate, and then he was gone before he could work
enough to repay the cost of his upbringing. The bloodletting of
Sweden was benefiting America, but depriving Sweden of
soldiers and workers and wives. Hence it was possible for a few
social reformers to persuade the r i k s d a g to order a major inquiry
into the causes of emigration. The twenty-one volumes of this
report developed into a thorough sociological examination of
Sweden. They revealed deep discontent with living conditions,
with the poor man's diet o f f i s h and potatoes, potatoes and fish,"
with the lack of decent housing, a hatred of traditional social
distinctions, frustration with the lack of jobs and resentment that
the best jobs were reserved for the elite. Obviously reforms were
needed. And there were those who wanted to pattern reforms
after the United States, even, as they said, to create an "America
in Sweden."3
Against the negative realities of Sweden appeared the dream
of America. Relatives wrote home of the fruitfulness of American
fields, of wages three or four times those in Sweden, of the
freedom they felt and the equality with their fellows; in America
was OPPORTUNITY writ large. Exaggerations? Yes, often, but with
a basis of sound truth, too. As Sigmund Skard has said,
"Europeans have come to daydream an American perfection and
beauty which the country never had and never promised." Yet
the "myth of America" was itself a reality, and sometimes the
"dreams of the O l d World came to life in the N e w . " 4 Scientific
and technical growth was envied and imitated, and the political
and social freedom of America stimulated demand for the same at
home.
Stark opposition to emigration was expressed by some. For
example, Adrian Molin, a conservative and fascist before the
fascists, active i n the National Society against Emigration,
labeled emigration " a kind of suicide," treason against God and
country. Opposition to emigration often meant antagonism to
America, resentment against the braggadocio of returnees,
condemnation of the crudity and corruption in American life, and
both its materialism and its religiosity. M o l i n condemned
291
democracy which "undermines the e t h i c a l ; " he called it a
sickness in the social body, and maintained that a dominating
upper class is necessary for a healthy society.5
Molin's diatribes had little effect; his positive program of
social reform was more significant in the long run, especially the
"Own Home" movement. At the very least, emigration seems to
have softened the conservative resistance to the reforms
demanded by the social democrats and liberals. In this way
America reacted strongly on the b u i l d i n g of 20th-century
Sweden. By the time of the complete breakthrough of the
welfare state in the 1930s, of course, emigration no longer played
an active role.
So much for the general background with which we are all
more or less aware. Let us turn our attention to one of the most
interesting and compelling examples of the working of cultural
cross-currents, the two-way interchange of people and ideas.
II
In the little town of Höganäs, beautifully situated on the west
coast of Skåne, not far north of Hälsingborg, the major local
industry was pottery-making, and still is. In 1868 four young
men of Höganäs landed i n New York, went on to Boston, and
there they found that the pottery works in Worcester,
Massachusetts, might have work for them. Leader of the group
was Sven Pålson (Swen Pulson) who had left his sweetheart
Katrina Jeppson in Sweden. She came to join h im early in 1869,
they were married, and i n 1872 she gave birth to the first
Swedish girl in Worcester. In 1869, shortly after the arrival of
Katrina, came her brother John Jeppson. John had gone to work
in a Höganäs pottery at age 12, and had learned thoroughly how
to handle clay and manufacture pottery; he was 25 when he
emigrated, he soon married in Worcester, and in 1873 had a son
George N.—the first Swedish boy in the town. After about ten
years in various jobs and different New England cities, John
returned to Worcester in 1880 and began to make grinding
wheels for F. B. Norton and Co.; in 1885, when Norton sold his
company, Jeppson became superintendent of Norton Emery
Wheel Co., a title and a job he held until his death in 1920. He it
was, along with some Irish colleagues, who built the foundations
of Norton's greatness. His "ingenuity, unceasing efforts, his long
292
hours of labor and his remarkable leadership of men" inspired
the company and set it on the road to success. His son George
worked i n the plant, and at the proper time was sent to the Royal
Institute of Technology i n Stockholm for the thorough education
his father never had. A n d it was George Jeppson, successively
superintendent, manager, treasurer, vice-president, president,
and chairman of the board, followed in turn by his son, the
second John Jeppson, who helped to make Norton the world's
largest manufacturer of abrasives, with 30 plants in the United
States and 40 abroad. It was the first John who with his friend
from Höganäs, Swen Pulson, developed the vitrified grinding
wheel and thus shifted Norton from pottery to abrasives.6
The three Jeppsons were all unusually public-spirited citizens
as well as successful business men, and they were generous in
support of Worcester institutions—the First Lutheran Church,
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the famous Antiquarian Society,
and many others.
However, there is far more to the story of the Jeppsons than
personal success and benevolence. In the first place the fame of
Jeppson and Pulson attracted other young ceramics workers from
Skåne. In 1886 the Norton organization still consisted of only
about a dozen men, although by 1888 there were about 35, and
70% of them were Swedes. Scores more came in succeeding
years, while the company grew far more rapidly than its Swedish
contingent; by the 1930s it hired several thousand employees,
and even then the Swedish element accounted for about 25%.
One interesting bit of evidence is on the walls of the Board room
at the Norton plant—the decoration consists of an immense
chronological chart, similar to a genealogical tree, displaying the
names of hundreds of the earliest workers; names like Johansson
and Blomquist and Olsson predominate.
Another large influx of Swedes was brought to Worcester by
Philip Moen (of Washburn and Moen) who studied the Swedish
iron industry i n detail and enticed laborers from Värmland and
the iron industrial center of Sandviken. In 1876 the total Swedish
population of Worcester stood at around 200, by 1880 it was 5,000
and by 1920 it included about 20,000 Swedish-born and another
20,000 of the second generation, making up altogether
approximately one-fifth of the population of the city. One of
these, another skåning, was Hans Trulson who arrived in 1872.
He worked at the American Steel and Wire Co. (successor to
293
Washburn and Moen), then established the first Swedish grocery
store, and i n 1897 started the Swedish newspaper Svea, which
soon developed the largest circulation of any Swedish paper east
of Chicago. Trulson was a fatherly type who enjoyed enormous
popularity.7
The extent of Swedish immigration to Worcester, and
particularly the migration from Höganäs, plus the phenomenal
success of the Norton Co., based on a Swedish-American
invention and built by a corps of Swedish workers, are only the
most obvious facts. Two additional aspects of this migration are
worthy of special attention.
An important and perhaps surprising factor is the interchange
between the Swedish-Americans and the Swedes still at home,
an interchange that has continued for a hundred years. Many
workers came for a time to Worcester, then returned to Höganäs,
then sometimes came again to Worcester. The steady flow of
people back and forth meant also a constant interchange of ideas
and techniques; the Americans learned from the Swedes and the
Swedes learned from the Americans. They sometimes
cooperated in filling contracts. Not only d i d George Jeppson and
his son John go to Stockholm for their advanced schooling; they
traveled frequently to and from Sweden and maintained close
connections with Swedish industry and trade, and with leaders
in Swedish politics and cultural life. The Jeppson home displays
some of the most beautiful works of artists such as Zorn and
Fjæstad and Liljefors.
Furthermore, the American Steel and Wire Co., the other big
employer of Swedes i n Worcester, also maintained l i v e ly
contacts with Sweden. P h i l i p Moen had early recruited Swedes
trained i n metallurgical s k i l l s . A l l a n Kastrup tells us, for
example, that i n 1880 the firm employed two specialists from
Swedish industry: James Forsstedt and W i l h e lm Bildt. Forsstedt
was a prolific inventor and also an orator, known in Worcester as
the Swedish Demosthenes and elected to public office there.
After 18 years i n America he returned to Sweden and was active
i n introducing "back home" American production methods. His
son, Ralph S. Forsstedt, educated at Worcester Polytechnic
Institute, contributed to technological developments in both
Sweden and the United States. W i l h e lm B i l d t returned to
Sweden after 19 years in the United States. Emanuel Trotz
294
(1860—1925) came to America on a government grant at age 27,
became superintendent and chief metallurgist i n the Worcester
mills, designed steel and rolling mills in N ew Jersey and Rhode
Island, and later became president of a large metal-working
company in Blekinge.8
Thus was technical progress stimulated on both sides of the
Atlantic.
A third fascinating aspect of the Swedish intrusion into
American industrial life is to be seen in the social atmosphere of
the Norton factory. The earliest workers in the plant, after it
turned its attention to abrasives, were Swedes, and undoubtedly
this helped to establish a sense of community, almost a family
feeling. And the Jeppsons were kindly patrons and employers,
conscious of their own background as similar to that of the
employees, and basically democratic—though with a touch of
n o b l e s s e o b l i g e . At Christmas a turkey dinner with all the
trimmings and gaiety was served i n Plant One, and everyone
participated, from the president to the least important employee.
Only when the number of workers grew to impossible size was
the dinner abandoned, to be replaced by a gift turkey for each
family. Tennis courts were constructed, a company baseball
team was organized, an athletic field built, and a bathing beach
opened on Lake Quinsigamond; housing and sanitary conditions
were a constant concern of management, clubs were organized,
and seniority was recognized. There was a consistent effort to
keep everyone happy and healthy. Norton was, as a 43-year
employee testified, " a pleasant place to work." Naturally
enough, the turnover of labor was minimal and productivity was
high.9
When I visited Norton a few years ago I was forcibly struck
w i t h the comparison between this plant and the Swedish
b r u k — t h a t decentralized, semi-rural paternalistic community,
characteristic of the old-country potteries, lumber mills, and iron
works.
We have, then, i n the Worcester example, three interrelated
phenomena: an unusually large migration from one community
in Sweden to one community i n the United States, a migration
feeding upon itself, involving brothers and sisters and cousins
and friends i n s p i r i n g each other to the move; second, a
long-continuing interplay between the Swedish neighborhood
295
and the American; third, the establishment i n the United States
of at least one example of a significant Swedish type of factory
organization.
We must ask ourselves: is Worcester unique, or is it typical?
Are the Swedes unique? (Of course we know that the Swedes are
unique!) Do change and progress, invention and development
come through interchange of people?—through the
cross-currents of culture?—through men and women from one
milieu meeting men and women from another milieu, tossing out
ideas, exchanging experiences, striking sparks, stimulating
thought, clashing in differences of opinion? Yes, I w i l l argue that
this is true, and that where the movement of people ceases there
growth ceases and culture stagnates.
Ill
What then, i f we leave the Worcester example aside, are some
of the specific areas i n w h i c h this hypothesis of cultural
development operates?—in which cross-currents irrigate and
fertilize? Only a few brief mentions are possible here, but they
may serve to illustrate some of the significant fields of cultural
interchange.
Technology, already illustrated i n our special consideration of
Worcester and Höganäs, was one of the most productive areas of
interchange. Both Swedes and Americans are inventive and
skillful, and they have stimulated and complemented each other.
It was President Abraham Lincoln who sent a brace of Colt
revolvers to K i n g Charles X V , introducing to Sweden the
revolutionary idea of interchangeable parts. In 1876, only a year
after Alexander Graham B e l l , born in Scotland, proved in Boston
the practicability of the telephone, a company was founded in
Stockholm which became the L. M . Ericsson Co., one of the
world's great multinationals, with factories and sales offices for
telephone equipment all around the world. Another Ericsson,
John, had come to the United States already i n 1838 and made a
significant contribution to the Union cause in the C i v i l War with
his famous M o n i t o r , while his brother Nils remained in Sweden
to b u i l d railroads. D e Laval's separator meant much to the dairy
industry i n America and throughout the world. During World
War II the United States acquired rights under license to
manufacture Swedish-invented anti-aircraft guns. Swedish ball
296
bearings have played a major role i n American industry in times
of both war and peace. Such examples could be piled up by the
dozens and the hundreds; we interchange thousands of items
and have become increasingly interdependent.
Swedes and Americans have long been active partners i n the
field of medicine and medical research. Swedish doctors are
regularly sent to the U.S. with their tape recorders to visit
hospitals and report on new discoveries and techniques, and
many study i n American medical schools. On the other side,
Karolinska Institutet i n Stockholm, one of the world's great
teaching and research hospitals, is used as a favored center for
research on cancer and virology, to which the Rockefeller
Foundation allots millions of dollars in grants.
In dentistry, the original stream of influence was all from the
United States (and much of it from the Northwestern University
School of Dentistry), until now Swedish dentists are among the
best anywhere; their offices are equipped with the most
up-to-date apparatus to be had, and a patient can be drilled just
as happily i n Stockholm as i n New York or Los Angeles.
Literature is a vast and fascinating field in which not only
writers are involved, but everyone who reads. Since Americans
seldom know Swedish they must get Swedish literature in
translation, and this is possible only for the most popular
authors—Selma Lagerlöf, Harry Martinson, Pär Lagerkvist,
V i l h e lm Moberg, August Strindberg, and a few more. Since
Swedes know English, and an increasing number know it well,
they have access to everything from dime novels and the classic
westerns of James Fenimore Cooper and Jack London to the
modern novels of W i l l i a m Faulkner, S i n c l a i r L e w i s,
Hemingway, Steinbeck—and to a l l that is good, bad, or
indifferent, as well as to movies, radio, television, poetry,
philosophy, science. Standard English-language textbooks in
many fields, most notably i n business and economics, are used
without translation i n Swedish schools and u n i v e r s i t i e s.
Dissertations i n scientific and business fields are more
frequently written i n English than in Swedish, and in other
subject areas a summary i n English is commonly provided.
Bookstores and libraries attest that American literature is more in
demand than English literature, and far more than French or
German. But the literary cross-currents are far weaker flowing
297
westward—other countries seldom have doctoral theses written
in Swedish!
In education, again the stronger currents are out of America
rather than out of Sweden. Yet notable examples of the opposite
prove that the United States is also affected by Sweden. Some of
the famous and fabled teachers in our universities have been of
Swedish origin, for example Anton J . Carlson of the University of
Chicago, who w i l l be long remembered for his insistence that
students answer the question, "Vot iss de effidence?" Helge
Kökeritz was a professor of English at Yale, a specialist, of all
things, on the pronunciation of Elizabethan English! There was
Assar Janzén who introduced hundreds of students at Berkeley
to the genius of Strindberg. Active at this moment are others in
Indiana, Washington, Minnesota, and elsewhere, several who
must be classed now as bi-national. A n d how can we measure the
impact of the Swedish-American colleges scattered from coast to
coast, especially in the Middle West?
Swedish educators, l ed by Per Siljeström, came as early as the
m i d - n i n e t e e n t h century to study the American system of
elementary education. However, the Swedish emphasis on
education of the elite was not fundamentally altered until the
mid-twentieth century. Then at last the shift of political power in
Sweden demanded the democratization of the schools, and it was
natural to turn to the United States, to John Dewey and W i l l i am
Heard Kilpatrick, for their ideas on education for citizenship and
education for life. Opposition from the conservatives was bitter
at first, for it was felt that equalization of educational opportunity
w o u l d b r i n g l o w e r i n g of standards and achievement, and
deprive the natural leaders of the superior education they
deserved and the country needed. Karl Larm wrote bitterly that
the leveling ideas were poisonous winds from the West—and he
was right about the direction, at least.
After the success of the elementary school reforms came the
reorganization of the universities, the relaxation of requirements
for admission, and the deliberate lowering of standards for the
doctor's degree. These reforms opened the doors to a new class
of students, to decentralization of the university system, and to
social and educational results that can be fully assessed only
after the passage of time.
The most direct educational relations have come through
student exchanges, especially the programs of the American
298
F i e l d Service for the secondary level and the American
Scandinavian Foundation and Sweden-America Foundation for
the college and graduate level. Together these organizations
have supported thousands of students back and forth, and
powerful currents of cross-cultural learning have flowed in both
directions, to the lasting advantage of the two societies and of the
individuals. Hardly a Swedish scientist of note, and many
literary personalities and political leaders and businessmen
(Bertil Ohlin, Håkan Sterky, A l v a Myrdal, Lars Forssell, Philip
Sandblom)—the list is almost endless—have had at least a year
of American education. From America the list may not be as
distinguished, but promising young people are chosen each year
for a broadening of their experience.
The cross-currents of religious thought and institutions were
more active a hundred years ago, but they still circulate. The
immigrants brought their religion with them, and they found a
favorable climate in the more tolerant society of America. Hence
not only d i d L u t h e r a n i sm f l o u r i s h , though w i t h a newly
American twist, but others like the Mission Friends were able to
realize their hopes. The names of L. P. Esbjörn and T. N .
Hasselquist and Erland Carlsson are well known, and likewise
Gustaf Unonius and David Nyvall, Victor Witting, Oscar Broady,
Anders Wiberg, and Olof Bergström of the Good Templars.
Congregations were organized, churches built, and colleges
founded. Bonds of varying strength were maintained with
churches back i n Sweden. American churches entered upon
missionary activities across the ocean—the Methodists and
Baptists, and later the Seventh Day Adventists and the Mormons.
Americans studied theology at L u n d and Uppsala, w h i le
Swedish pastors raised their voices in the Middle West. Some
religious leaders moved back and forth. Archbishop Nathan
Söderblom made an impressive grand tour of the United States.
A hundred years before him, the Presbyterian Sunday school
worker Robert Baird had helped to spark the temperance
movement i n Sweden.1 0
And so we could speak of engineers and business men and
artists and entertainers, and others i n many fields.
* * * *
The essence of it all is the interplay of two peoples and two
cultures in which each has been enriched. The example of the
299
Swedes i n Worcester is only one of the more spectacular cases of
interaction. We have thought too much of immigration as a
one-way street, of people leaving old homes and starting new
lives in an alien land. But migration does not always lead to
separation. Among all migrants memories survive of the o ld
home, of family and friends, of food and customs and institutions.
And those who stay behind do not entirely forget the departed;
there remains a special interest in their fate and in the distant
places where they settle and the new ideas they learn. Language
maintenance and common interests encourage continuing
contact and mutual stimulation. Once the experimental western
society inspired older established communities to try change and
reform; later the roles have been at least partially reversed. The
United States has itself become a society with entrenched
customs and established values, with conservative rather than
innovative tendencies. Nevertheless, social reforms developed
abroad often cause soul-searching in haughty and individualistic
America—the welfare state of Sweden is a good example.
Between Sweden and the United States, and to varying degrees
among dozens of other communities a steady interplay of people
and ideas has enhanced understanding and promoted
progress—progress if not always peace. Civilization is a product
of interaction.
To quote from the prophecies of Daniel: "Many shall run to
and fro and knowledge shall be increased." (Daniel 12:4).
NOTES
1 Harald Elovson, A m e r i k a i s v e n s k litteratur 1 7 5 0 - 1 8 2 0 (Lund: Gleerup,
1930), 216-217 and p a s s i m . See also Adolph B. Benson and Naboth Hedin, eds.,
S w e d e s in A m e r i c a 1 6 3 8 - 1 9 3 8 (New Haven: Yale, 1938); Martti Kerkkonen,
P e t e r Kalm's N o r t h A m e r i c a n J o u r n e y . I t s I d e o l o g i c a l B a c k g r o u n d and R e s u l ts
(Helsinki, 1959). On a more general basis see Bertrand Russell e t al., The I m p a c t
o f A m e r i c a o n E u r o p e a n C u l t u r e (Boston: Beacon Press, 1951) and Howard
Mumford Jones, O Strange N e w W o r l d (New York: Viking Press, 1964).
2 Befällningshafvandes femårsberättelser 1 8 7 0 , SOS, serie H, reproduced in
Hans Norman and Harald Runblom, A m e r i k a - e m i g r a t i o n e n i källornas b e l y s n i n g
(Uddevalla: Cikada, 1980), 67-68.
3 E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n : Betänkande i utvandringsfrågan (Stockholm,
1908-1913).
300
4 Sigmund Skard, T r a n s - A t l a n t i c a (Oslo: Universitetsforlag, 1978), 185, and
T h e A m e r i c a n M y t h a n d t h e E u r o p e a n M i n d (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1961), 15.
3 See, for example, D e t N y a S v e r i g e , 18 (1924): 199-207; 20 (1926): 329-336;
and Michael Shepard, "The Romantic, Rural Orientation of the National Society
against Emigration," S w e d i s h P i o n e e r H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 21 (1970): 69-83.
6 F. Joel Styffe, in S v e a , 28 Oct. 1936; Adolph Benson and Naboth Hedin,
A m e r i c a n s f r o m S w e d e n (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1950), 382-383,402; S v e a , 18
June, 1930 (300 Year Jubilee Number).
7 Robert N. Beck, "Brief History of the Swedes of Worcester," S w e d i s h P i o n e e r
H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 10 (1959): 115-116; cf. Beck's article in S v e a , 23 October,
1958.
8 Allan Kastrup, T h e S w e d i s h H e r i t a g e in A m e r i c a (St. Paul: Swedish Council
of America, 1975), 531-532.
9 F. Joel Styffe, in S v e a , 28 Oct. 1936; discussions with John Jeppson.
1 0 On the total variety of Swedish-American interchange in education and
other fields see, eg., Allan Kastrup and Nils William Olsson, eds., Partners in
P r o g r e s s (St. Paul: Swedish Council of America, 1977); Franklin D. Scott, T h e
A m e r i c a n E x p e r i e n c e o f S w e d i s h S t u d e n t s (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1956); J. Iverne Dowie and J . Thomas Tredway, T h e
I m m i g r a t i o n o f I d e a s (Rock Island, 111.: Augustana Historical Society, 1968),
wherein especially the chapter by Merle Curti on "Sweden in the American
Social Mind of the 1930s."
This article is a revised version of a talk given before the annual meeting of the
Swedish Pioneer Historical Society on 14 March 1981, at Northwestern
University.
301

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

All rights held by the Swedish-American Historical Society. No part of this publication, except in the case of brief quotations, may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the editor and, where appropriate, the original author(s). For more information, please email the Society at info@swedishamericanhist.org

S W E D I S H - A M E R I C A N CROSS-CURRENTS
F R A N K L I N D . SCOTT
I
The commonplace that Sweden is the most Americanized
country i n Europe views only one side of the coin. Our frequent
concentration on the influence of Swedish immigrants in
America views only the other side of the coin. Actually a mutual
and multi-faceted interaction is the force that has shaped both
societies. And the process is much older than we ordinarily
consider.
The first impact of America on Sweden was the knowledge of
America's existence. A N ew World became a reality. People who
had thought in parish-bound terms and believed i n the flatness of
the earth were awakened to a vastly expanded universe. For
Columbus and his successors opened up a world even more
extensive than the Vikings had known, and much more inviting.
Minds had to adjust to new concepts. But not until after Gustavus
Adolphus was direct contact made from Sweden to the continent
across the ocean.
The seventeenth-century Swedo-Finnish colony on the
Delaware had only a brief existence, but the settlers and their
descendants remained. They brought the log cabin that became
the housing and the symbol of the frontier, and they established
relationships that were never completely broken. Pastors
continued to be sent out from Sweden. Per Kalm, in the middle
of the eighteenth century, took back home specimens of North
American flora that enlarged the scope of Linné's scientific
analyses. Benjamin Franklin was idealized in Sweden, as in
France, as the most enlightened philosopher and educator, and
acclaimed as the discoverer of the nature of electricity; it was he
who, in 1783, signed with the Swedish ambassador in Paris the
first treaty between the new United States and a neutral country.
During the American Revolution a cohort of aristocratic young
Swedish officers came with the French forces and learned
warfare first hand; none of them was sufficiently interested in
r e p u b l i c a n i sm to remain i n the U n i t e d States, but their
289
experience may have affected a critical attitude toward the
monarchy of Gustav III. Swedish poets sang praises to George
Washington, "freedom's hero," and "kingly president."1
Individual Swedes were attracted to the United States as
immigrants, such as Adolf U l r i c Wertmüller, the painter of
Washington and other notables, or as visitors, l i k e Axel
Klinkowström, who studied steamboats and became fascinated
with American society and politics. Later came Fredrika Bremer,
and Jenny L i n d , the "Swedish Nightingale," and Per Siljeström
to study the American educational system. But Swedes were
slow to emigrate i n large numbers until the 1840s. Then came a
group to New Sweden, Iowa, and soon thereafter the famous
colony of Eric-Jansonists to Bishop H i l l , Illinois. It was the call
of religious freedom that drew these followers of the "Wheat
Flour Messiah." The emigration of dissenters roused Sweden to
abolish restrictive laws against them, and soon it was economic
pressure rather than religious that inspired further emigration.
By the late 1860s crop failures and famine induced the migration
to, among other places, northeastern Maine. A veritable
population explosion pushed thousands from their Swedish
cradles to seek a new life across the Atlantic; Swedish industrial
development was too slow to absorb the excess of people.
Another factor became important, too, that had little to do with
either religious oppression or economic need. Mens' minds were
expanding to a full realization that there existed something
beyond the bounds of the Swedish lakes and woods. Some
poignant passages from the quinquennial report of Sweden's
provincial governors, in 1870, attest to the changes that were
taking place:
The older generation among us can recall a time when our
own land was the whole of our world, when even our
neighbors seemed farther away than other continents do
now. . . .
Through educational institutions at all levels, through
popular writings and newspaper articles, information spread
to all inhabitants. Special interests . . . relatives, friends,
countrymen who had emigrated excercised their influence.
Emigration is a phase of development in civilization in
which every people is affected in the degree of its education
and individual freedom.2
290
Some thought of emigration as a welcome safety valve, saving
the country from social disruption. But as the outflowing tide
grew stronger economists and politicians and patriots became
more and more concerned. One economist ruefully reckoned
that every emigrant had cost Swedish society 5,000 k r o n o r to
raise and educate, and then he was gone before he could work
enough to repay the cost of his upbringing. The bloodletting of
Sweden was benefiting America, but depriving Sweden of
soldiers and workers and wives. Hence it was possible for a few
social reformers to persuade the r i k s d a g to order a major inquiry
into the causes of emigration. The twenty-one volumes of this
report developed into a thorough sociological examination of
Sweden. They revealed deep discontent with living conditions,
with the poor man's diet o f f i s h and potatoes, potatoes and fish,"
with the lack of decent housing, a hatred of traditional social
distinctions, frustration with the lack of jobs and resentment that
the best jobs were reserved for the elite. Obviously reforms were
needed. And there were those who wanted to pattern reforms
after the United States, even, as they said, to create an "America
in Sweden."3
Against the negative realities of Sweden appeared the dream
of America. Relatives wrote home of the fruitfulness of American
fields, of wages three or four times those in Sweden, of the
freedom they felt and the equality with their fellows; in America
was OPPORTUNITY writ large. Exaggerations? Yes, often, but with
a basis of sound truth, too. As Sigmund Skard has said,
"Europeans have come to daydream an American perfection and
beauty which the country never had and never promised." Yet
the "myth of America" was itself a reality, and sometimes the
"dreams of the O l d World came to life in the N e w . " 4 Scientific
and technical growth was envied and imitated, and the political
and social freedom of America stimulated demand for the same at
home.
Stark opposition to emigration was expressed by some. For
example, Adrian Molin, a conservative and fascist before the
fascists, active i n the National Society against Emigration,
labeled emigration " a kind of suicide," treason against God and
country. Opposition to emigration often meant antagonism to
America, resentment against the braggadocio of returnees,
condemnation of the crudity and corruption in American life, and
both its materialism and its religiosity. M o l i n condemned
291
democracy which "undermines the e t h i c a l ; " he called it a
sickness in the social body, and maintained that a dominating
upper class is necessary for a healthy society.5
Molin's diatribes had little effect; his positive program of
social reform was more significant in the long run, especially the
"Own Home" movement. At the very least, emigration seems to
have softened the conservative resistance to the reforms
demanded by the social democrats and liberals. In this way
America reacted strongly on the b u i l d i n g of 20th-century
Sweden. By the time of the complete breakthrough of the
welfare state in the 1930s, of course, emigration no longer played
an active role.
So much for the general background with which we are all
more or less aware. Let us turn our attention to one of the most
interesting and compelling examples of the working of cultural
cross-currents, the two-way interchange of people and ideas.
II
In the little town of Höganäs, beautifully situated on the west
coast of Skåne, not far north of Hälsingborg, the major local
industry was pottery-making, and still is. In 1868 four young
men of Höganäs landed i n New York, went on to Boston, and
there they found that the pottery works in Worcester,
Massachusetts, might have work for them. Leader of the group
was Sven Pålson (Swen Pulson) who had left his sweetheart
Katrina Jeppson in Sweden. She came to join h im early in 1869,
they were married, and i n 1872 she gave birth to the first
Swedish girl in Worcester. In 1869, shortly after the arrival of
Katrina, came her brother John Jeppson. John had gone to work
in a Höganäs pottery at age 12, and had learned thoroughly how
to handle clay and manufacture pottery; he was 25 when he
emigrated, he soon married in Worcester, and in 1873 had a son
George N.—the first Swedish boy in the town. After about ten
years in various jobs and different New England cities, John
returned to Worcester in 1880 and began to make grinding
wheels for F. B. Norton and Co.; in 1885, when Norton sold his
company, Jeppson became superintendent of Norton Emery
Wheel Co., a title and a job he held until his death in 1920. He it
was, along with some Irish colleagues, who built the foundations
of Norton's greatness. His "ingenuity, unceasing efforts, his long
292
hours of labor and his remarkable leadership of men" inspired
the company and set it on the road to success. His son George
worked i n the plant, and at the proper time was sent to the Royal
Institute of Technology i n Stockholm for the thorough education
his father never had. A n d it was George Jeppson, successively
superintendent, manager, treasurer, vice-president, president,
and chairman of the board, followed in turn by his son, the
second John Jeppson, who helped to make Norton the world's
largest manufacturer of abrasives, with 30 plants in the United
States and 40 abroad. It was the first John who with his friend
from Höganäs, Swen Pulson, developed the vitrified grinding
wheel and thus shifted Norton from pottery to abrasives.6
The three Jeppsons were all unusually public-spirited citizens
as well as successful business men, and they were generous in
support of Worcester institutions—the First Lutheran Church,
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the famous Antiquarian Society,
and many others.
However, there is far more to the story of the Jeppsons than
personal success and benevolence. In the first place the fame of
Jeppson and Pulson attracted other young ceramics workers from
Skåne. In 1886 the Norton organization still consisted of only
about a dozen men, although by 1888 there were about 35, and
70% of them were Swedes. Scores more came in succeeding
years, while the company grew far more rapidly than its Swedish
contingent; by the 1930s it hired several thousand employees,
and even then the Swedish element accounted for about 25%.
One interesting bit of evidence is on the walls of the Board room
at the Norton plant—the decoration consists of an immense
chronological chart, similar to a genealogical tree, displaying the
names of hundreds of the earliest workers; names like Johansson
and Blomquist and Olsson predominate.
Another large influx of Swedes was brought to Worcester by
Philip Moen (of Washburn and Moen) who studied the Swedish
iron industry i n detail and enticed laborers from Värmland and
the iron industrial center of Sandviken. In 1876 the total Swedish
population of Worcester stood at around 200, by 1880 it was 5,000
and by 1920 it included about 20,000 Swedish-born and another
20,000 of the second generation, making up altogether
approximately one-fifth of the population of the city. One of
these, another skåning, was Hans Trulson who arrived in 1872.
He worked at the American Steel and Wire Co. (successor to
293
Washburn and Moen), then established the first Swedish grocery
store, and i n 1897 started the Swedish newspaper Svea, which
soon developed the largest circulation of any Swedish paper east
of Chicago. Trulson was a fatherly type who enjoyed enormous
popularity.7
The extent of Swedish immigration to Worcester, and
particularly the migration from Höganäs, plus the phenomenal
success of the Norton Co., based on a Swedish-American
invention and built by a corps of Swedish workers, are only the
most obvious facts. Two additional aspects of this migration are
worthy of special attention.
An important and perhaps surprising factor is the interchange
between the Swedish-Americans and the Swedes still at home,
an interchange that has continued for a hundred years. Many
workers came for a time to Worcester, then returned to Höganäs,
then sometimes came again to Worcester. The steady flow of
people back and forth meant also a constant interchange of ideas
and techniques; the Americans learned from the Swedes and the
Swedes learned from the Americans. They sometimes
cooperated in filling contracts. Not only d i d George Jeppson and
his son John go to Stockholm for their advanced schooling; they
traveled frequently to and from Sweden and maintained close
connections with Swedish industry and trade, and with leaders
in Swedish politics and cultural life. The Jeppson home displays
some of the most beautiful works of artists such as Zorn and
Fjæstad and Liljefors.
Furthermore, the American Steel and Wire Co., the other big
employer of Swedes i n Worcester, also maintained l i v e ly
contacts with Sweden. P h i l i p Moen had early recruited Swedes
trained i n metallurgical s k i l l s . A l l a n Kastrup tells us, for
example, that i n 1880 the firm employed two specialists from
Swedish industry: James Forsstedt and W i l h e lm Bildt. Forsstedt
was a prolific inventor and also an orator, known in Worcester as
the Swedish Demosthenes and elected to public office there.
After 18 years i n America he returned to Sweden and was active
i n introducing "back home" American production methods. His
son, Ralph S. Forsstedt, educated at Worcester Polytechnic
Institute, contributed to technological developments in both
Sweden and the United States. W i l h e lm B i l d t returned to
Sweden after 19 years in the United States. Emanuel Trotz
294
(1860—1925) came to America on a government grant at age 27,
became superintendent and chief metallurgist i n the Worcester
mills, designed steel and rolling mills in N ew Jersey and Rhode
Island, and later became president of a large metal-working
company in Blekinge.8
Thus was technical progress stimulated on both sides of the
Atlantic.
A third fascinating aspect of the Swedish intrusion into
American industrial life is to be seen in the social atmosphere of
the Norton factory. The earliest workers in the plant, after it
turned its attention to abrasives, were Swedes, and undoubtedly
this helped to establish a sense of community, almost a family
feeling. And the Jeppsons were kindly patrons and employers,
conscious of their own background as similar to that of the
employees, and basically democratic—though with a touch of
n o b l e s s e o b l i g e . At Christmas a turkey dinner with all the
trimmings and gaiety was served i n Plant One, and everyone
participated, from the president to the least important employee.
Only when the number of workers grew to impossible size was
the dinner abandoned, to be replaced by a gift turkey for each
family. Tennis courts were constructed, a company baseball
team was organized, an athletic field built, and a bathing beach
opened on Lake Quinsigamond; housing and sanitary conditions
were a constant concern of management, clubs were organized,
and seniority was recognized. There was a consistent effort to
keep everyone happy and healthy. Norton was, as a 43-year
employee testified, " a pleasant place to work." Naturally
enough, the turnover of labor was minimal and productivity was
high.9
When I visited Norton a few years ago I was forcibly struck
w i t h the comparison between this plant and the Swedish
b r u k — t h a t decentralized, semi-rural paternalistic community,
characteristic of the old-country potteries, lumber mills, and iron
works.
We have, then, i n the Worcester example, three interrelated
phenomena: an unusually large migration from one community
in Sweden to one community i n the United States, a migration
feeding upon itself, involving brothers and sisters and cousins
and friends i n s p i r i n g each other to the move; second, a
long-continuing interplay between the Swedish neighborhood
295
and the American; third, the establishment i n the United States
of at least one example of a significant Swedish type of factory
organization.
We must ask ourselves: is Worcester unique, or is it typical?
Are the Swedes unique? (Of course we know that the Swedes are
unique!) Do change and progress, invention and development
come through interchange of people?—through the
cross-currents of culture?—through men and women from one
milieu meeting men and women from another milieu, tossing out
ideas, exchanging experiences, striking sparks, stimulating
thought, clashing in differences of opinion? Yes, I w i l l argue that
this is true, and that where the movement of people ceases there
growth ceases and culture stagnates.
Ill
What then, i f we leave the Worcester example aside, are some
of the specific areas i n w h i c h this hypothesis of cultural
development operates?—in which cross-currents irrigate and
fertilize? Only a few brief mentions are possible here, but they
may serve to illustrate some of the significant fields of cultural
interchange.
Technology, already illustrated i n our special consideration of
Worcester and Höganäs, was one of the most productive areas of
interchange. Both Swedes and Americans are inventive and
skillful, and they have stimulated and complemented each other.
It was President Abraham Lincoln who sent a brace of Colt
revolvers to K i n g Charles X V , introducing to Sweden the
revolutionary idea of interchangeable parts. In 1876, only a year
after Alexander Graham B e l l , born in Scotland, proved in Boston
the practicability of the telephone, a company was founded in
Stockholm which became the L. M . Ericsson Co., one of the
world's great multinationals, with factories and sales offices for
telephone equipment all around the world. Another Ericsson,
John, had come to the United States already i n 1838 and made a
significant contribution to the Union cause in the C i v i l War with
his famous M o n i t o r , while his brother Nils remained in Sweden
to b u i l d railroads. D e Laval's separator meant much to the dairy
industry i n America and throughout the world. During World
War II the United States acquired rights under license to
manufacture Swedish-invented anti-aircraft guns. Swedish ball
296
bearings have played a major role i n American industry in times
of both war and peace. Such examples could be piled up by the
dozens and the hundreds; we interchange thousands of items
and have become increasingly interdependent.
Swedes and Americans have long been active partners i n the
field of medicine and medical research. Swedish doctors are
regularly sent to the U.S. with their tape recorders to visit
hospitals and report on new discoveries and techniques, and
many study i n American medical schools. On the other side,
Karolinska Institutet i n Stockholm, one of the world's great
teaching and research hospitals, is used as a favored center for
research on cancer and virology, to which the Rockefeller
Foundation allots millions of dollars in grants.
In dentistry, the original stream of influence was all from the
United States (and much of it from the Northwestern University
School of Dentistry), until now Swedish dentists are among the
best anywhere; their offices are equipped with the most
up-to-date apparatus to be had, and a patient can be drilled just
as happily i n Stockholm as i n New York or Los Angeles.
Literature is a vast and fascinating field in which not only
writers are involved, but everyone who reads. Since Americans
seldom know Swedish they must get Swedish literature in
translation, and this is possible only for the most popular
authors—Selma Lagerlöf, Harry Martinson, Pär Lagerkvist,
V i l h e lm Moberg, August Strindberg, and a few more. Since
Swedes know English, and an increasing number know it well,
they have access to everything from dime novels and the classic
westerns of James Fenimore Cooper and Jack London to the
modern novels of W i l l i a m Faulkner, S i n c l a i r L e w i s,
Hemingway, Steinbeck—and to a l l that is good, bad, or
indifferent, as well as to movies, radio, television, poetry,
philosophy, science. Standard English-language textbooks in
many fields, most notably i n business and economics, are used
without translation i n Swedish schools and u n i v e r s i t i e s.
Dissertations i n scientific and business fields are more
frequently written i n English than in Swedish, and in other
subject areas a summary i n English is commonly provided.
Bookstores and libraries attest that American literature is more in
demand than English literature, and far more than French or
German. But the literary cross-currents are far weaker flowing
297
westward—other countries seldom have doctoral theses written
in Swedish!
In education, again the stronger currents are out of America
rather than out of Sweden. Yet notable examples of the opposite
prove that the United States is also affected by Sweden. Some of
the famous and fabled teachers in our universities have been of
Swedish origin, for example Anton J . Carlson of the University of
Chicago, who w i l l be long remembered for his insistence that
students answer the question, "Vot iss de effidence?" Helge
Kökeritz was a professor of English at Yale, a specialist, of all
things, on the pronunciation of Elizabethan English! There was
Assar Janzén who introduced hundreds of students at Berkeley
to the genius of Strindberg. Active at this moment are others in
Indiana, Washington, Minnesota, and elsewhere, several who
must be classed now as bi-national. A n d how can we measure the
impact of the Swedish-American colleges scattered from coast to
coast, especially in the Middle West?
Swedish educators, l ed by Per Siljeström, came as early as the
m i d - n i n e t e e n t h century to study the American system of
elementary education. However, the Swedish emphasis on
education of the elite was not fundamentally altered until the
mid-twentieth century. Then at last the shift of political power in
Sweden demanded the democratization of the schools, and it was
natural to turn to the United States, to John Dewey and W i l l i am
Heard Kilpatrick, for their ideas on education for citizenship and
education for life. Opposition from the conservatives was bitter
at first, for it was felt that equalization of educational opportunity
w o u l d b r i n g l o w e r i n g of standards and achievement, and
deprive the natural leaders of the superior education they
deserved and the country needed. Karl Larm wrote bitterly that
the leveling ideas were poisonous winds from the West—and he
was right about the direction, at least.
After the success of the elementary school reforms came the
reorganization of the universities, the relaxation of requirements
for admission, and the deliberate lowering of standards for the
doctor's degree. These reforms opened the doors to a new class
of students, to decentralization of the university system, and to
social and educational results that can be fully assessed only
after the passage of time.
The most direct educational relations have come through
student exchanges, especially the programs of the American
298
F i e l d Service for the secondary level and the American
Scandinavian Foundation and Sweden-America Foundation for
the college and graduate level. Together these organizations
have supported thousands of students back and forth, and
powerful currents of cross-cultural learning have flowed in both
directions, to the lasting advantage of the two societies and of the
individuals. Hardly a Swedish scientist of note, and many
literary personalities and political leaders and businessmen
(Bertil Ohlin, Håkan Sterky, A l v a Myrdal, Lars Forssell, Philip
Sandblom)—the list is almost endless—have had at least a year
of American education. From America the list may not be as
distinguished, but promising young people are chosen each year
for a broadening of their experience.
The cross-currents of religious thought and institutions were
more active a hundred years ago, but they still circulate. The
immigrants brought their religion with them, and they found a
favorable climate in the more tolerant society of America. Hence
not only d i d L u t h e r a n i sm f l o u r i s h , though w i t h a newly
American twist, but others like the Mission Friends were able to
realize their hopes. The names of L. P. Esbjörn and T. N .
Hasselquist and Erland Carlsson are well known, and likewise
Gustaf Unonius and David Nyvall, Victor Witting, Oscar Broady,
Anders Wiberg, and Olof Bergström of the Good Templars.
Congregations were organized, churches built, and colleges
founded. Bonds of varying strength were maintained with
churches back i n Sweden. American churches entered upon
missionary activities across the ocean—the Methodists and
Baptists, and later the Seventh Day Adventists and the Mormons.
Americans studied theology at L u n d and Uppsala, w h i le
Swedish pastors raised their voices in the Middle West. Some
religious leaders moved back and forth. Archbishop Nathan
Söderblom made an impressive grand tour of the United States.
A hundred years before him, the Presbyterian Sunday school
worker Robert Baird had helped to spark the temperance
movement i n Sweden.1 0
And so we could speak of engineers and business men and
artists and entertainers, and others i n many fields.
* * * *
The essence of it all is the interplay of two peoples and two
cultures in which each has been enriched. The example of the
299
Swedes i n Worcester is only one of the more spectacular cases of
interaction. We have thought too much of immigration as a
one-way street, of people leaving old homes and starting new
lives in an alien land. But migration does not always lead to
separation. Among all migrants memories survive of the o ld
home, of family and friends, of food and customs and institutions.
And those who stay behind do not entirely forget the departed;
there remains a special interest in their fate and in the distant
places where they settle and the new ideas they learn. Language
maintenance and common interests encourage continuing
contact and mutual stimulation. Once the experimental western
society inspired older established communities to try change and
reform; later the roles have been at least partially reversed. The
United States has itself become a society with entrenched
customs and established values, with conservative rather than
innovative tendencies. Nevertheless, social reforms developed
abroad often cause soul-searching in haughty and individualistic
America—the welfare state of Sweden is a good example.
Between Sweden and the United States, and to varying degrees
among dozens of other communities a steady interplay of people
and ideas has enhanced understanding and promoted
progress—progress if not always peace. Civilization is a product
of interaction.
To quote from the prophecies of Daniel: "Many shall run to
and fro and knowledge shall be increased." (Daniel 12:4).
NOTES
1 Harald Elovson, A m e r i k a i s v e n s k litteratur 1 7 5 0 - 1 8 2 0 (Lund: Gleerup,
1930), 216-217 and p a s s i m . See also Adolph B. Benson and Naboth Hedin, eds.,
S w e d e s in A m e r i c a 1 6 3 8 - 1 9 3 8 (New Haven: Yale, 1938); Martti Kerkkonen,
P e t e r Kalm's N o r t h A m e r i c a n J o u r n e y . I t s I d e o l o g i c a l B a c k g r o u n d and R e s u l ts
(Helsinki, 1959). On a more general basis see Bertrand Russell e t al., The I m p a c t
o f A m e r i c a o n E u r o p e a n C u l t u r e (Boston: Beacon Press, 1951) and Howard
Mumford Jones, O Strange N e w W o r l d (New York: Viking Press, 1964).
2 Befällningshafvandes femårsberättelser 1 8 7 0 , SOS, serie H, reproduced in
Hans Norman and Harald Runblom, A m e r i k a - e m i g r a t i o n e n i källornas b e l y s n i n g
(Uddevalla: Cikada, 1980), 67-68.
3 E m i g r a t i o n s u t r e d n i n g e n : Betänkande i utvandringsfrågan (Stockholm,
1908-1913).
300
4 Sigmund Skard, T r a n s - A t l a n t i c a (Oslo: Universitetsforlag, 1978), 185, and
T h e A m e r i c a n M y t h a n d t h e E u r o p e a n M i n d (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1961), 15.
3 See, for example, D e t N y a S v e r i g e , 18 (1924): 199-207; 20 (1926): 329-336;
and Michael Shepard, "The Romantic, Rural Orientation of the National Society
against Emigration," S w e d i s h P i o n e e r H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 21 (1970): 69-83.
6 F. Joel Styffe, in S v e a , 28 Oct. 1936; Adolph Benson and Naboth Hedin,
A m e r i c a n s f r o m S w e d e n (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1950), 382-383,402; S v e a , 18
June, 1930 (300 Year Jubilee Number).
7 Robert N. Beck, "Brief History of the Swedes of Worcester," S w e d i s h P i o n e e r
H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 10 (1959): 115-116; cf. Beck's article in S v e a , 23 October,
1958.
8 Allan Kastrup, T h e S w e d i s h H e r i t a g e in A m e r i c a (St. Paul: Swedish Council
of America, 1975), 531-532.
9 F. Joel Styffe, in S v e a , 28 Oct. 1936; discussions with John Jeppson.
1 0 On the total variety of Swedish-American interchange in education and
other fields see, eg., Allan Kastrup and Nils William Olsson, eds., Partners in
P r o g r e s s (St. Paul: Swedish Council of America, 1977); Franklin D. Scott, T h e
A m e r i c a n E x p e r i e n c e o f S w e d i s h S t u d e n t s (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1956); J. Iverne Dowie and J . Thomas Tredway, T h e
I m m i g r a t i o n o f I d e a s (Rock Island, 111.: Augustana Historical Society, 1968),
wherein especially the chapter by Merle Curti on "Sweden in the American
Social Mind of the 1930s."
This article is a revised version of a talk given before the annual meeting of the
Swedish Pioneer Historical Society on 14 March 1981, at Northwestern
University.
301